Pitt, Clooney, Sheen headline marriage rights play

From left to right, actress Yeardley Smith, actor George Clooney, and actor Martin Sheen take a bow during the curtain call at the Los Angeles premiere of the play "8" in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
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From left to right, actress Yeardley Smith, actor George Clooney, and actor Martin Sheen take a bow during the curtain call at the Los Angeles premiere of the play "8" in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
/ AP

Actor George Clooney, left, and actor Jansen Panettiere take a bow during the curtain call at the Los Angeles premiere of the play "8" in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)— AP

Actor George Clooney, left, and actor Jansen Panettiere take a bow during the curtain call at the Los Angeles premiere of the play "8" in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
/ AP

Actor Brad Pitt, left, and actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson clap during the curtain call at the Los Angeles premiere of the play "8" in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)— AP

The play by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black made its Broadway debut last year in similar starry fashion. Saturday's benefit performance was broadcast live on YouTube, where director Rob Reiner said it drew 200,000 viewers. He hopes it attracts more than a million before its weeklong online run ends. The play will also be staged around the country with local actors at colleges and community theaters.

"We want as many people as possible to see what happened inside that courtroom," said Reiner, a founding member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is funding the federal fight for marriage equality.

Relying largely on transcripts from court proceedings, "8" introduces viewers to the couples who challenged the California initiative, the attorneys who argued their case and a bumbling witness who spoke out against them.

One couple has two children together; the other wants to start a family; and a witness testifying in favor of the same-sex marriage ban said under oath that marriage equality was best for couples, kids and the country.

Reiner said he and Black decided to make a play and eventually a movie based on the Prop. 8 trial after proponents successfully petitioned to block cameras from the courtroom.

Saturday's reading was held on a courtroom-like set, with eight chairs on each side and Pitt's judge's box in the center. Sheen and Clooney made for an impressive legal team, while Reilly cracked up the crowd as a verbose marriage expert.

"I knew that Martin Sheen was going to get a huge ovation after that speech because we applauded for him in rehearsal," said Ferguson, adding that he wanted to be in "8" as soon as he heard about it. "John C. Reilly did a brilliant job with his role but I loved seeing Jane Lynch play such a villainous, homophobic creature. It really felt like she was sticking it to the man."